Pros & Cons of Grass Livery and Full Livery.

[Celestica]

I will hopefully be taking a horse out on a short loan for the Summer from April-October. Can anybody tell me what's the pro's on cons for choosing one over the other?

 

[be positive]

If you are only having a horse for the summer I can see no benefit for you to be paying for full livery it would be best for most to have 24/7 turnout and save
you ££££s in livery. Ideally find a friendly yard that offers grass livery with some supervision so you can have the occasional day off.

 

[rockysmum]

I agree with Be Positive, however there are a lot of options in between.

I personally would prefer DIY with 24/7 summer turnout and a stable. If the horse has a problem or you want to go to a competition, or even just dry it off on a rainy day, a stable is a godsend.

 

[Celestica]

If you are only having a horse for the summer I can see no benefit for you to be paying for full livery it would be best for most to have 24/7 turnout and save
you ££££s in livery. Ideally find a friendly yard that offers grass livery with some supervision so you can have the occasional day off.

That's what I was thinking. The yard is very close to me (10 mins by bus) and it's €55 a week for grass and €100 for full. The yard doesn't state whether I get a stable with the grass livery so I've emailed them but hopefully if I Payed a bit extra I could arrange a stable for my horse to use if there was torrential rain. Since the yard is so close I would most likely be able to make it up daily to do chores myself I feel money would be wasting away by paying the full €100.

Although I was briefly asking my instructor about this and he said a horse wouldn't have enough energy living off just grass.(He himself is very big into eventing/show jumping so maybe he feels I'd be doing a lot of work like that too) but I'd only be doing hacks, light jumping and schooling and maybe the odd show in the summer. But even so is it possible to keep a horse out on grass and buy my own bag of feed for say €10 a week? Or is this unhealthy for the animal?

 

[be positive]

Your grass livery sounds fairly expensive but maybe offers good facilities and a good base from which to enjoy your horse.
For the work you will be doing the horse should have more than enough energy with only grass, supplemented with a little feed if required, they were designed to live on grass after all.
You should be able to have a great summer and enjoy having a horse of your own.

 

[Celestica]

Your grass livery sounds fairly expensive but maybe offers good facilities and a good base from which to enjoy your horse.
For the work you will be doing the horse should have more than enough energy with only grass, supplemented with a little feed if required, they were designed to live on grass after all.
You should be able to have a great summer and enjoy having a horse of your own.

Livery in Dublin is generally quite expensive anyway, also my mother works full time and with majority of stables having no bus links unlike this one I think I'd rather be spending a bit more on the livery. It meant I could be totally free on what time I wanted to go up and I wouldn't be wasting money on petrol compared to 65c on the bus or a 15 mins bike ride .

The yard is based on 159 acres of land, 60x40 outdoor arena and has loads of xc jumps

 

[1Lucie]

Blimey seems quite pricey! In summer there are not many chores etc to do oUr local full livery stables charge a flat rate all year tho. I would opt for part livery if u can, stable manage and someone on site to check ur horses water etc.

 

[cbmcts]

You won't have a lot of choice of livery in Dublin, it seems everyhere has been built on! Are you North or South Dublin?

I wouldn't worry about a stable in the summer, horses don't melt in the rain you know and as long as they have shelter/shade from the sun and a companion to help keep the flies off they will be happy...the only thing is will you have to do all the checks/water etc yourself on grass livery or is this included? Along with he use of facilities? If it's not full livery might work out better for you timewise. Also, what does the horses owner want? If the horse is a laminitic type for instance they might recommend stabling for at least part of the day.

So many questions sorry

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

Prob get shot down for this.

I don't do Grass livery , will never do it. Apart from horses who don't do well in stables ( ie wont stay in) of which I do not include in this . . I see it that the yard owner pays for the roughage (grass) all year round ( apart from a bit hay winter) owner only has to pay hard feed and only charges 10 - 25 per week depending on yard .
In other words I am paying more than I would receive in the way of maintenance for the fertilizer weedkiller etc.


Where as stable livery owner pays more themselves, in the way of livery thus more viable for me .

Surmise to say I am paying for the grass livery horse all year round to eat .

IMO .

 

[Celestica]

You won't have a lot of choice of livery in Dublin, it seems everyhere has been built on! Are you North or South Dublin?

I wouldn't worry about a stable in the summer, horses don't melt in the rain you know and as long as they have shelter/shade from the sun and a companion to help keep the flies off they will be happy...the only thing is will you have to do all the checks/water etc yourself on grass livery or is this included? Along with he use of facilities? If it's not full livery might work out better for you timewise. Also, what does the horses owner want? If the horse is a laminitic type for instance they might recommend stabling for at least part of the day.

So many questions sorry

I'm in south dublin, I haven't been told yet if I have to do checks but even if it's not included I would do so just for the sake of it! I'm not sure about the facilities yet as I'm planning to visit the yard in coming weeks. And I have no horse yet, I want to sort livery out first before I start looking so I know I've somewhere to put it!